Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:52 AM CEST - Sep,26 2002
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- Greece lets the games begin again - According to
an article in the English language Greek newspaper Kathimerini, the
Government has sought to clarify a poorly worded law designed to crack down on
electronic gambling. The newspaper quotes a statement from the Economy
and Finance Ministry, which said: "There is no problem for any individual or
for the tourists visiting Greece to use their private electronic or other
games such as Playstation, Gameboy, X-Box et cetera.
- Mars climate change is in the stars - Fluctuations in climate on
Mars can be traced to variations in the planet's astronomical behaviour.
French scientists have
found a correlation between layers of ice at the Red Planet's poles and
dramatic climate oscillations caused by orbital variation.
- Microsoft puts a price on IM features - The software giant is
getting ready to launch a new version of MSN Messenger--but there's a twist.
Some spiffy new
features will be exclusive to people who pay for MSN 8 online service.
- Hack-proof Linux on the way? - Guardian Digital releases a
version
of Linux that's less vulnerable to attack, a niche the company hopes will
gain it a foothold in the market for the Unix-like operating system.
- New Linux Worm Found in the Wild - The worms,
Slapper.B and
Slapper.C, which exploits a known buffer overrun vulnerability in the
Secure Sockets Layer 2.0 (SSLv2) handshake process has
infected thousands of Web servers worldwide, according to Helsinki-based
F-Secure Corp., a computer and network security company. "
- Intel eases up in race to 10GHz - The onset of Prescott, the next
evolution of the P4 due next year, seems to illustrate this gentler approach
to speed. Prescott will be built on a 90 nanometer manufacturing process and
will feature an enhanced version of the Netburst core which is already at the
heart of the Pentium 4. The Pentium 4 has leapfrogged up the speed ramp, from
1.4GHz at launch in the Fall of 2000, and will hit 3GHz by the end of this
year. At the P4's launch, Intel put the lifespan of Netburst at up to seven
years and said that if Moore's law held true,
the
company had the headroom to break the 10GHz mark by 2006.
- XM, Delphi Unveil Portable Satellite Radio System - XM Satellite
Radio Holdings Inc. and auto parts maker Delphi Corp. on Wednesday debuted a
pocket-sized portable device that allows listeners to tune into the
broadcaster's service using a home stereo or as part of a portable "boombox."
The Delphi XM SKYFi Radio receiver, a modular unit about the size of a bar
of soap, will sell for around $130, and a kit that connects it to a home or
car stereo goes for about $70.
- Public Testing of Its Personal Firewall - Kaspersky Anti-Hacker -
Kaspersky Labs announces the release
of the beta
version for its new
product Kaspersky Anti-Hacker and invites all those interested to take part in
its public beta testing. Kaspersky Anti-Hacker is an easy-to-use system of
defense against hacker attacks, ensuring maximum protection of personal
computers running Windows operating systems. Thanks to its control of all
network operations on a computer (it tracks all application activity, oversees
all Internet access and filters incoming and outgoing data packets and more),
Kaspersky Anti-Hacker guarantees the confidentiality of all stored data.
- Official Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Website -
The
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 not only propels PC audio forward; it drives a new
standard of quality for all audio. As we have done many times in the past,
Creative has established yet another new platform for the PC with Sound
Blaster 24-bit ADVANCED HDt audio. With the introduction of the Sound Blaster
Audigy 2, we are setting an audio standard for the PC that is currently
emerging in consumer electronics." - Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo.
- GeForce4 MX gets AGP8X - Prolink GF4 MX440-8X - Today nVidia
announces the latest addition to their budget graphics chipset line, the
GeForce4 MX440-8X. Based on the NV18 chipset,
the MX440-8X is directed at the budget gaming market and is in direct
competition with the Radeon 9000 from ATi. The first NV18 based card we have
managed to obtain is Prolink's GeForce4 MX440-8X.
- Samsung SM-332 32x10x40x CD-RW + 12x DVD -
The new Samsung SM-332 32x10x40x + 12xDVD is one of the most versatile
CD-Rom drives you can buy. It is a high speed burner, CD-Rom, and DVD drive
all-in-one. It features support for Ultra DMA Mode, an 8MB buffer with Buffer
Under Run software to prevent your CD's from becoming coasters, and includes a
copy of Ahead Software's: Nero Burning Rom.
- ABIT IT7-MAX2 DDR vs VS ASUS P4T533 RDRAM - Gibbo of OcUK has
written
a
comparitive review of the ABIT IT7-MAX2 DDR Motherboard and the ASUS
P4T533 RDRAM Motherboard for Tech PC and it has just been posted on the Tech
PC Website.
- GeForce4 Ti/MX and nForce2 Processors All Harness the Power of AGP 8X
and the AGP 3.0 - NVIDIA today introduced the industry's first and
only
comprehensive family of AGP 8X-based products. Based on Intel's AGP 3.0
specification, NVIDIA now offers an extensive range of top-to-bottom graphics
processing units (GPUs) and platform processors for next-generation digital
media, gaming, and business PC platforms. NVIDIA's AGP 8X product line-up,
which includes the NVIDIAR GeForcet4 Ti 4200 with AGP 8X and the GeForce4 MX
440 with AGP 8X desktop GPUs, as well as the new nForce2? platform processors,
forms the technology foundation for the world's most advanced PCs.
- UT2K3 Demo Benchmarking Utility -
All
of the utilities needed to benchmark with the UT2K3 Demo were already in
the demo, all we did was create some files that will ease the process of
benchmarking to make it easier for the reviewer and end user. Most importantly
this scripting utility will allow for people with DX8 compliant VidCards to
compare results on a "fair" basis. The creators of UT2K3 explain that vertex
and pixel shaders use in the game minimal at best. So comparing cards that are
pre-GF3 and pre-8500 might be considered, but we are not going to argue that
here and now.
- Apache 2.0.42 -
Apache 2.0 (download
2.0.42) offers numerous enhancements, improvements and performance boosts
over the 1.3 codebase. The most visible and noteworthy addition is the ability
to run Apache in a hybrid thread/process mode on any platform that supports
both threads and processes. This has shown to improve the scalability of the
Apache HTTP Server significantly in our testing. Apache 2.0 also includes
support for filtered I/O. This allows modules to modify the output of other
modules before it is sent to the client. We have also included support for
IPv6 on any platform that supports IPv6.
- IRCCrypt, IRC Public Channel Encryption Tool -
IRCCrypt is a local IRC Proxy-style utility that provides
application-layer encryption for public channels. It is a perfect solution
when you need to hold private chats in public areas. Only those people with
the right password can see the message. Configurable to encrypt all text being
sent to either a channel or nickname also protects sensitive information from
the eye's of prying IRCOps.
- Theora Alpha One -
Theora will be a video
codec that builds upon On2's VP3 codec. While Ogg Vorbis has reached 1.0,
Theora is currently being integrated into the Ogg multimedia framework, as
well as being optimized from the VP3 codebase at its heart. Theora will
be released in June of 2003, with three major milestones, the first being
released today, September 25th, 2002.
- BootXP v2.25 Final -
The Final BootXP version
2.25 has been released.
- IE Opera 6.5.1 -
Freeware IE Opera, an opera of Internet Explorer, is a fast, stable,
user-friendly, versatile multi-window browser. IE Opera allows user to browse
multiple Web sites simultaneously and block all unwanted pop-up pages.
- kX Project Drivers 5.10.0.3524 BETA -
The kX Audio
Driver is an independent WDM (Windows Driver Model) driver for all EMU10K1
and EMU10K2-based soundcards manufactured by Creative Technology Ltd. and/or
E-mu Sytems Inc., including the SoundBlaster Live! series, the E-mu Audio
Production Studio (APS) card, and the Audigy series of cards.
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Updated:12:40 AM CEST Jun,21
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